A study published in the Journal of Holistic Nursing again validates the impact of Shiatsu on lower back pain.
In the study, 66 people, who complained of lower back pain, received four Shiatsu treatments. After each treatment, the subjects were called and asked to quantify the level of pain. The researchers found that both pain and anxiety decreased significantly over time.
To learn more about Shiatsu and it's many benefits, you can go here.
Or see my other posts on Shiatsu studies here.
You may not be aware that many prescription drugs affect the way our bodies absorb and use essential nutrients. Analyzing four categories of common drugs for correlations to the loss of nutrients reveals the following potential deficiencies and what supplement to take to avoid the deficiency:
Statins, which lower cholesterol, deplete Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) – Take 30 to 60 mg daily
Vasodilators for high blood pressure deplete Vitamin B6 – Take 2 mg daily
Beta-blockers for high blood pressure deplete CoQ10 – Take 30 to 60 mg daily
Diuretics for hypertension or congestive heart failure deplete magnesium, potassium and zinc – Take up to 400 mg of magnesium, 8 mg of zinc and 3,500 mg of potassium
Hormone therapies such as birth control pills deplete Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, folic acid, magnesium, zinc – Take 2 mg B6, 75 mg of Vitamin C, 400 mcg of folic acid, 400 mg of magnesium and 8 mg of zinc.
If your doctor prescribes any of these drugs be sure to ask about the wisdom of taking these recommended supplements to offset the potential nutrient depletion from the drugs.
Using Vinegar To Help Control Diabetes
A study published in Diabetes Care showed that vinegar could dramatically reduce the spike in blood sugars that diabetics experience after eating a meal.
In this study the researchers gave a group of people two tablespoons of vinegar just before a meal. Next, they measured their blood sugar levels an hour later. The group had an average drop of 25% in blood sugar levels after the meal when they took the vinegar.
People who were highly prone to becoming diabetics had an even greater drop in their blood sugar spike. It dropped nearly 50%.
So…if you are a type 1 or type 2 diabetic, or prediabetic, start taking a vinegar appetizer right before a meal.
See my post here for other studies, and my recommended "vinegar cocktail"!
http://natural-health-alternative.blogspot.com/2008/02/use-vinegar-to-lower-glucose-and.html
Years ago MSG (monosodium glutamate), which is a flavor enhancer, got connected with Chinese food. Chinese chefs were using a lot of it in cooking and customers were getting headaches after eating this MSG-laced food. It was even called Chinese headache Syndrome. Now when people go to a Chinese restaurant, many will say “No MSG please” when ordering.
While that is good to do, you may not be aware that MSG is put into thousands of foods from soup to crackers to meats. It’s even in infant formulas and baby foods. It’s hidden under on the ingredients label by being called a lot of different names, such as, broth, casein, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP), autolyzed gelatin, yeast extract, malted barley, rice syrup and brown rice syrup. If you’re like me, you are suddenly realizing how the food industry has been deceiving us into eating more MSG.
MSG, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock in his book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, goes beyond just giving consumers headaches. It may actually be poisoning us. Dr. Blaylock explains that MSG is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the point of damaging them. This makes it act as a poison.
In addition, since the 1960s, scientists have known that MSG causes obesity. In case you haven’t looked around, we are in the middle of an obesity epidemic. MSG causes the production of visceral fat, which surrounds your organs, and increases your risk of heart attack, stroke, insomnia, and type-2 diabetics.
So…read those labels. It’s the only way you can finish what you started in the Chinese restaurant by saying “No MSG please.”
And for a list of known products containing "hidden" MSG, check out and support the Truth In Labeling Project: "If MSG isn't Harmful, Why is it Hidden?" report.
May 7, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is more common in people who suffer from chronic migraine headache than in those with episodic migraine headache, research suggests.
"Recent data suggest that PTSD may be more common in headache sufferers than in the general population," Dr. B. Lee Peterlin, of Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and colleagues note in the journal Headache.
They assessed the relative frequency of PTSD in 32 patients with episodic migraine and 28 with chronic migraine. People with chronic migraine typically have headaches on 15 or more days a month, while people with episodic migraine have fewer than 15 days of headache per month.
Peterlin and colleagues report that significantly more subjects with chronic migraine than with episodic migraine had a history of depression (54 percent versus 22 percent).
There was no significant difference in the percentage of subjects who reported at least one significant traumatic life event (78 percent of episodic migraine patients and 79 percent of chronic migraine patients). The groups did not differ in terms of the average number of traumatic life events reported.
However, the frequency of PTSD was significantly greater in the chronic migraine group than in the episodic group (43 percent versus 9.5 percent). This remained significant after adjusting for depression and other factors that might influence the results.
PTSD may be a risk factor for chronic migraine headache, Peterlin and colleagues conclude.
"As a previous study has suggested that PTSD treatment alone can positively influence chronic pain conditions and disability," they add, "one of the implications of this study is that there should be greater consideration for the evaluation of PTSD in chronic migraine patients, as well as for the use of cognitive/behavioral therapy (alone or in combination with drug therapy) in this subgroup of headache sufferers."
SOURCE: Headache, April 2008.
In the book Beat Diabetes Naturally by Michael Murray, ND and Michael Lyon MD, the doctors report on research comparing mulberry extract to a standard drug for diabetes control.
The researchers found that the mulberry significantly improved diabetic control in type 2 diabetic patients.